


Between the Lines

by lucymonster



Category: Bleach
Genre: Character Study, Established Relationship, Intimacy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-24 16:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17707310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucymonster/pseuds/lucymonster
Summary: Captain Kuchiki’s public face has a staying power that Renji and his tattoo artist can only dream of. But underneath all that dignity, there's an ordinary man named Byakuya who Renji is only just getting to know.





	Between the Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kazesuke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazesuke/gifts).



It’s the little things that get Renji the most, as their awkward mess of confusion and illicit lust gradually gives way to the slow, cautious intimacy of a proper relationship. The concessions and miniscule slip-ups. The fleeting glimpses of life behind the curtain.

Captain Kuchiki’s public face has a staying power that Renji and his tattoo artist can only dream of: he wears it at home, wears it in the bath, wears it in his sleep. Dressed in only his slippers and sleeping robe, the Captain has an air of dignified grace that would put a royal court to shame. He takes his morning rice like a banquet. In every corner of his mansion, servants bow and householders grovel. His status, his reputation, they’re not external things linked to public perception – they’re attached like limbs, like hardened skin, a suit of armour that travels with him everywhere. Captain Kuchiki _is_ his public face. The softer, more ordinary man named Byakuya is difficult to get to know.

But he’s there.

It’s a balmy Sunday afternoon, and Renji has already forgotten the feeble pretext on which he dropped by the manor. His excuses don’t need to hold water these days, not once he starts taking off his clothes (and isn’t _that_ more than enough to deal with all by itself, the sex, the closeness, the firsthand knowledge that Byakuya really is just a standard-built man underneath that uniform). Whatever the excuse was going to be, though, it seems that he’s already been thwarted. Byakuya isn’t the least bit interested when he enters the study and calls out his polite greeting from the doorway.

He’s reading. He’s reading so intently that he’s actually forgotten to sit seiza, cross-legged with his elbows propped on his knees and his nose barely inches from the page of the doorstopper tome he’s engrossed in.

‘Nice day for it, Captain,’ Renji says.

No answer. Byakuya strokes the page as he reads, tracking each line of kanji with a trailing finger. He must like what he’s reading – really like it – because the stern line of his mouth has softened into a smile. A _smile_. That’s new.

Renji doesn’t want to interrupt the beatific moment, but he’s too curious to leave it alone. ‘What are you reading?’

Here’s what he gets back: ‘A book.’

‘Good book, is it? Bit of sappy love poetry?’

‘Mm.’ He doesn’t even glance up.

It looks like Renji mightn’t be getting laid this afternoon. Byakuya turns the page – from the dense wall of kanji Renji glimpses across the room, it’s not poetry at all, more like some kind of lofty battle epic or dry historical record – and with that tender smile still in place, Renji decides he doesn’t really mind.

It’s not many people who get to see Byakuya all happy and unguarded like this. It’s not often he relaxes his lordly act for long enough to just _enjoy_ himself. This, more than their breathless sexual chemistry or the illicit thrill of their workplace romance, is what makes all Renji’s years of pining and frustration worthwhile.

His lewd intentions can wait a while.

Going by the size of that book, they’re going to have to.


End file.
